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Born in the hamlet of White Coppice, near Chorley, Lancashire, Tate was the son of a Unitarian clergyman, the Reverend William Tate, and his wife Agnes née Booth. When he was 13, he became a grocer's apprentice in Liverpool. After a seven-year apprenticeship, he was able to set up his own shop. His business was successful, and grew to a chain of six stores by the time he was 35. In 1859 Tate became a partner in John Wright & Co. sugar refinery, selling his grocery business in 1861. By 1869, he had gained complete control of the company, and renamed it as Henry Tate & Sons. In 1872, he purchased the patent from German Eugen Langen for making sugar cubes, and in the same year built a new refinery in Liverpool. In 1877 he opened a refinery at Silvertown, London, which remains in production. At the time, much of Silvertown was still marshland.[1] Tate was a modest rather retiring man, well known for his concern with workers’ conditions. He built the Tate Institute opposite his Thames Refinery, a bar and dance hall for their recreation.[2]

Tate rapidly became a millionaire and donated generously to charity. In 1889 he donated his collection of 65 contemporary paintings to the government, on the condition that they be displayed in a suitable gallery, toward the construction of which he also donated £80,000. The National Gallery of British Art, nowadays known as Tate Britain, was opened on 21 July 1897, on the site of the old Millbank Prison.

Tate was made a baronet on 27 June 1898.[3] He had refused this title more than once until - after he had spent £150,000 to build the Millbank Gallery, endowed it with his personal collection, and presented it to the nation - he was told the Royal Family would be offended if he refused again.[2]

In 2001, a blue plaque commemorating Sir Henry was unveiled on the site of his first shop at 42 Hamilton Street, Birkenhead. In 2006 a Wetherspoons pub in his home town of Chorley was named after the sugar magnate.

Tate married Jane Wignall on 1 March 1841 in Liverpool.[4] They had three sons. Tate lived at Park Hill by Streatham Common, South London, and is buried in nearby West Norwood Cemetery, the gates of which are opposite a public library that he endowed. Park Hill became a nunnery after his death until refurbishment as housing around 2004.